Psalm 4:1-8 has come to have a great deal of meaning for me recently. Just this past winter, I wrote a research paper on it, about 12 pages total. (Yes, it says something about me that I can write a 12 page paper on a Psalm that's only 8 verses long.) In fact, I really focused on only two verses of the Psalm for that paper. Yet, this Psalm is remarkable for how it applies to our lives as Christians.
David, the writer of the Psalm, seems to have had an experience where he had followed what God said and outlined for life, but others were pointing to it as a dishonorable thing. Maybe it was an occasion such as the time when David could have killed Saul, but chose to let him live. Doing what God had said by honoring the life of a fellow human could have been seen as dishonorable, since Saul was trying to kill him.
Yet, even as that is happening, David doesn't let his spirit get down. He knows that God hears. He knows that there is a place for anger at that, but that the anger is not an excuse to sin. And then, David does something that is truly astounding to me. He gives thanks to God that God will see him through it, and that God's face will shine upon him. He is so assured of this that he can lie down and sleep without having to worry about it at all.
It's difficult to do the right thing when you know that others will criticize you for it. I've experienced that a time or two in my life. And yet, this Psalm reminds me that life is not about simply being liked by others. It's about living God's design, being thankful that God has made me His own. I don't have to worry about what others say or think because I am in the hands of the God who loves me enough to lay down His life for me. And that is so reassuring that I can sleep at night, knowing that I am in His hands, and I am His.
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